A splitting extrapolation for solving nonlinear elliptic equations with \(d\)-quadratic finite elements (Q1000210)

The authors consider a finite element splitting extrapolation for solving the nonlinear elliptic equations (1) \(L(u)=-\sum^d_{i,j=1} D_i(a_{ij}(x,u)D_ju)=f(x,u)\) on \(\Omega\), \(u=g(x)\) on \(\partial \Omega\), where \(\Omega \subset\mathbb R^d(d=2,3)\), \(a_{ij} (x,u) \in L_\infty (\Omega)\), \(D_i= \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i}\). A discrete \(d\)-quadratic isoparametric finite element approximation for (1) is presented. The splitting extrapolation formulas are just some linear combinations and can be easily implemented. They generate an approximation with higher accuracy on a globally fine grid while only requiring some approximations from a set of smaller discrete subproblems on different coarser grids. Because these subproblems are independent of each other and have similar scales, the method is naturally parallel and also possesses a high decree of parallelism. Additionally, the multi-parameter expansion only requires the local smoothness of the solutions (the smoothness of the solutions in each sub-domain). Therefore, splitting extrapolation is efficient for solving discontinuous problems (if we regard the interfaces of the problems as the interfaces of the initial domain decomposition). Main result: Multiparameter asymptotic expansions are proved for the errors of approximations. Based on the expansions, the authors develop new splitting extrapolation formulas to compute approximations with high order accuracy on a globally fine grid. Some a posteriori error estimates are proposed. Finally, the authors present two numerical examples to illustrate the features of splitting extrapolation in this work.